CEDAR RIDGE ELEMENTARY STUDENTS TAKE PART IN GLOBAL HOUR OF CODE

Yulisa Bautista stared intently at the computer screen in front of her as her fingers typed. The fifth-grader at Cedar Ridge Elementary School was trying to get the animated figure on the screen to move in exactly the way she wanted.

“It isn’t that hard,” she said, even though it was the first time she’d tried something like that.

Bautista was one of about 45 Cedar Ridge students taking part in the Hour of Code on Thursday, a worldwide effort to spark interest in computer science by having children write code for an hour.

“Our ALPHA (gifted) class has been working with code since the start of the year,” said teacher Rayda Reed. “Today, we have a standard fifth-grade class come in, and the ALPHA students are coaching them on using code.”

“It takes them through code at their own pace. There are videos that introduce them to the concepts, and they learn how to make the characters on screen do what they want them to do,” Reed said. “For Hour of Code, the website has prepared several different tutorials on the very basics of coding, and the ALPHA students are helping the ...